Review of "New faculty: A practical guide for academic beginners"

Abstract

Lucas, C. & Murry, J. (2011). New faculty: A practical guide for academic beginners (3rd ed.). New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Pages: 316. Price: USD $26.00 (paper), $95.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-0-230-11486-9Are you a graduate student considering a career in academia or a new faculty member seeking practical advice about navigating the context of your workplace? If so, Christo- pher J. Lucas, Professor of Higher Education, and John W. Murry, Associate Professor of Higher Education, both from the University of Arkansas--Fayetteville, offer a thorough understanding of the pertinent issues and practical advice about how to succeed in higher education. In New Faculty: A Practical Guide for Academic Beginners (3rd ed.), they cover the most significant concerns to new faculty members and provide the reader with a comprehensive guide to understanding and navigating the main components of academia, and many of the associated expectations and challenges inherent within each component.The purpose of the book, as outlined in the preface, is to provide new faculty members with advice that will help them find success in academia. Lucas and Murry explain that faculty newcomers have already proven their self-assurance and independence through their graduate work, and therefore, it is often incorrectly assumed that they have every- thing they need to prosper; however, there is abundant evidence to suggest otherwise (p. xi). They point out that for recent graduates the may seem superficially familiar, but the role new faculty play within it is quite (p. xii) from their ex- perience as graduate students. Furthermore, many new faculty members are hired into programs that are significantly different from the program in which they were enrolled. Lucas and Murry concede that their practical advice will not work in every situation or for every individual. However, they have endeavoured to include several suggestions for success in each area, and they encourage readers to try a number of different ideas and to select the ones that they find beneficial.The first section of the book, Preliminary Considerations, covers four global top- ics: organizational cultures, norms that govern performance expectations, citizenship and collegiality, and mentoring. These topics define the working environment that is created by the socio-political context of the university as a work place. In the second section, Faculty Work Activities, the authors focus more specifically on outlining the various responsibilities held by faculty members. The tasks and expectations covered in this sec- tion include teaching, active learning, student advising, getting published, grant writing, faculty service, and legal issues. This comprehensive list of topics ensures that the book addresses most, if not all, of the concerns of new faculty members.Although not tightly structured, each chapter includes a discussion on more general understandings about each particular topic and practical advice on how to negotiate suc- cessfully through this new environment. In addition, each chapter includes a series of bordered text boxes that illustrate the points made within the chapter (more on these later). Finally, each chapter ends with a set of Points in Review that summarize the criti- cal information that has been covered.The chapters begin with a thorough discussion of a variety of perspectives and ten- sions that surround different faculty responsibilities and activities, and how they relate to the role of new faculty. The authors seek political balance by presenting and support- ing several competing perspectives, leaving the reader to decide which position is most agreeable. For example, the section on publishing begins with a discussion about the struggle that faculty members often have when attempting to maintain a balance between teaching and research. The authors provoke the reader's attention by framing it within the perspective that universities over-emphasize publishing and, as such, contribute to a vast collection of writing for writing's sake-a veritable avalanche of articles, research publications, technical reports, scholarly books, and new academic journals-the whole of almost stupefying proportions (p. …